Hillary Brings on Monsanto Lobbyist to Prepare for Iowa

Press reports indicate that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce her run for president next month, setting off a 20-month election cycle.

Her first steps are to set up a campaign in the historic early primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire. Perhaps with an eye toward her third-place finish in 2008, Clinton’s operation is moving swiftly to secure a political team in Iowa to create a base of operations to stave off any challengers.

Along those lines, the Washington Post published a long profileof Jerry Crawford, a long-time Iowa political hand who is serving as an adviser to Ready For Hillary, the super PAC supporting the former first lady’s run for the White House. The profile focuses largely on personal details about Crawford, such as his love of the Kentucky Derby, but affirms that as a former Midwestern co-chair of Clinton’s 2008 campaign, he’s ready to take her all the way this time.

What the piece doesn’t go into is that between Clinton’s 2008 race and her likely entry into the presidential race again this year, Crawford has been busy serving a corporate clientele and even assisting Iowa Republicans—which should raise eyebrows for those worried Team Hillary is too tied to corporate America instead of Main Street.

“Before joining Clinton’s campaign in 2008, Crawford served in a variety of high-profile political roles … his most prominent client, however, was Monsanto”

Before joining Clinton’s campaign in 2008, Crawford served in a variety of high-profile political roles. In addition to a variety of local positions, he served as the Iowa chair for the presidential campaigns of Mike Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry—each one the more conservative candidates in their Democratic presidential primaries.

So it was a natural fit for Crawford to sign up for the Hillary campaign. But after Clinton’s 2008 loss, Crawford spent his days at Crawford Muaro, his law and lobbying firm. While there, he represented a variety of corporate clients, including Kraft and Altria (the parent company of Philip Morris USA). He also served as a lawyer for Jack DeCoster, a factory farm tycoon who infamously supplied eggs that led to a salmonella outbreak. His most prominent client, however, was Monsanto.

Monsanto, the agricultural and biotechnology corporation founded in Missouri, is known worldwide for its abuses against the environment and practices designed to crush farm competition. Iowa is a farming state, with agriculture making up a large share of its total economy.

The 2010 Agriculture Secretary election was particularly important for Monsanto; as one Iowa blogger noted, it holds “patents on most of the corn and soybeans grown in Iowa.” The company was also the subject of an antitrust investigation. The Democratic nominee for the spot, Francis Thicke, was a critic of Monsanto and a backer of antitrust actions against the big agricultural companies. Thus it wasn’t long before Monsanto took aim at Thicke, allying itself to the Republican nominee and incumbent, Bill Northey.

When Crawford, working for Monsanto at the time, endorsed Northey, he touted his backing as evidence of “strong bipartisan support,” calling him a “veteran Democratic political insider.”

Although Francis Thicke picked up strong endorsements from progressives in the farm movement, such as food writer Michael Pollen, environmentalist Bill McKibben and former Texas Ag Commissioner and progressive writer Jim Hightower, he was defeated in his race against Northey, getting just 37 percent of the vote to his 63 percent. Monsanto ended up being Northey’s eighth-largest direct contributor. His top supporter, the Iowa Farm Bureau, is allied to Monsanto.

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